NEWARK — As Newark heads into the dangerous summer months, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Police Director Samuel DeMaio today announced a series of old and new approaches to curb city violence.

After laying off more than 160 police officers three years ago, Newark is now in the midst of hiring 100 civilians to fill dispatch and jailhouse guard duties, freeing up uniformed officers to patrol the streets between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m. between June and August.

City officials said the positions will be paid out of the police budget and will be full-time.

The reorganization will bring 170 additional officers out on the streets, city officials said.

DeMaio said the department will incorporate policing strategies from "the old 1950s and 1960s way of officers on foot in the neighborhoods to infrared technology."

In addition to beefed-up patrols, Booker and DeMaio said the city's police helicopter will use FLIR thermal-imaging technology to patrol and track potential criminal activity. The technology is the same kind used in Massachusetts to locate Dzhokar Tsarnaev, the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings.

"We will now have eyes out on the street where we never had them before," Booker said.

The Newark police helicopter hovers over a news conference today announcing the city's anti-crime initiatives. The chopper is fitted with infrared technology. David Giambusso/The Star-Ledger

Police are also establishing eight geographic areas with high concentrations of gun violence throughout the city to focus enforcement efforts.

In addition to the new measures, the city will also bring back community roll calls in neighborhoods to increase the visible presence of police officers and reinstate a summer curfew for those 17 and younger. If they are found more than 100 yards beyond their homes between 10 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. weekdays and 11 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. weekends, police will pick them up and bring them to various churches and community facilities.

"With respect to kids, nothing good happens after midnight," said Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray, who along with Chief of Detectives Anthony Ambrose and Sheriff Armando Fontoura, joined Booker and DeMaio.

A partnership between Newark, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office and the Essex County Sheriff will also double enforcement of open air drug markets throughout the city, officials said.

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"We've heard these promises before," said at-Large Councilwoman Mildred Crump. While law enforcement was crucial, she said it is just as crucial for the city to provide outlets for Newark's youth.

"We've got to fight to keep our young people busy," Crump said. "Our focus should be on empowerment so the quality of their lives will improve."

After the news conference, Booker said city and community-sponsored recreational opportunities will be advertised through social media and on the city's website.

James Stewart Jr., president of Newark's Fraternal Order of Police, said his union has been calling for increased staffing levels since 2010, but added, "shuffling around a handful of dispatchers and cell block guys back to the street is not going to solve that problem."

Stewart called for the hiring of more police officers which Booker reiterated would begin this summer.

Rahaman Muhammad, president of the SEIU Local 617, said his union, along with community activists will be forming an adopt-a-playground initiative to teach kids baseball, kickball and other outdoor activities in neighborhood parks.

"We've cut the budget so deep that we've taken all these tools from them," he said.